At 721, Families Are Up The Creek

Dana and Felicia Burton live in a one story brick house at 721 Lucas Creek Road. Lacy and Susan Phibbs live in a one-story brick house at 721 Lucas Creek Road West. The confusion was inevitable.

They got our pizza! We got their water bill! Whatever happened to that bouquet I ordered?!

Small inconveniences, perhaps, but that's not the half of it. Here's what happened when Felicia Burton returned home Wednesday afternoon:

``I pulled into the driveway, and there was a whole work crew on their way out. They had finished putting on the backside of a new roof and half of the front,'' Burton said.

Trouble is, Burton hadn't ordered a new roof. Neither had her husband. Neither had her landlord.

``I thought: My goodness, this is really bad,'' Burton said. She had a hunch the Phibbses might know what was going on. And they did: After all, they were the ones patiently awaiting a new roof.

The mix-up was funny to the two families - and the Phibbses finally got their work done on Thursday - but not to officials at E.D. White Builders, who are now out $1,300 because of it. "I don't think it's very funny," White said.

Lacy Phibbs blames the city for this mix-up and a decade of others. Why have two homes, four-tenths of a mile apart, with such similar addresses, he wonders.

``I've been here about nine years, and it's been going on the whole time,'' Phibbs said.

Once, he said, he called city officials to complain that a street light outside his house had been knocked over by a car. A work crew came out to Lucas Creek Road - instead of Lucas Creek Road West - saw nothing wrong, and left, Phibbs said. It took five days to straighten it out.

``It's a circus. It's just a circus,'' he said. If either family ever needed an ambulance or fire truck in an emergency, Phibbs says, the confusion could cause a tragedy.

Phibbs thinks the city should re-number the houses. His home could be 723 instead of 721. His next-door neighbor could be 725 instead of 723. That way, the numbers wouldn't match from one street to the next.

On Thursday, Assistant City Manager Randy Hildebrandt said re-numbering might be worth considering, but he wasn't sure. ``You try to use a certain sequence that makes sense,'' he said.

Besides, a big change is already in the works: The city is considering rerouting the Lucas Creek Road bridge, so the lower end of Lucas Creek Road connects directly to Lucas Creek Road West. If the City Council approves, Lucas Creek Road West would be renamed Lucas Creek Road. And the former Lucas Creek Road above the bridge - where the Burtons now live - would probably get a new name. Old Lucas Creek Road, perhaps, Hildebrandt said.

Residents have a range of opinions on the bridge project. Nearly 250 people have signed petitions, both for and against. But the Burtons and the Phibbses, both proud recipients of brand-new roofs this week, can all agree on one thing: The confusion can't get much worse.